1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication terminal device that transmits electronic mail through a network by a mail system thereon, and its controlling method, and further relates to a network facsimile device that has functions to exchange image information with use of electronic mail by connecting to the Internet, to create a send/receive history information table about the electronic mail, and to visibly output a communication management report that displays contents of the send/receive history information table as a list, and its controlling method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, with the increase in number of Internet users, a communication method using electronic mail has become more common.
A content of the electronic mail is mainly readable text data, image information, binary data, or the like that may be exchanged between a user and an other party by being encoded and decoded by an encode/decode method based on BASE 64 that is compliant to MIME (Multipurpose Internet Message Extension).
A process to send or receive electronic mail by a communication terminal device that is connected to a network is described below. A communication terminal device of a sender sends the electronic mail with a specified mail address through the Internet to a mail server (MTA: Message Transfer Agent) that is located on the sender""s side. Subsequently, the mail server transfers the electronic mail by a fixed electronic mail transmission protocol such as SMTP (Simple-mail Transfer Protocol) through the Internet to a mail server (MTA) that is located on a receiver""s side. The mail server (MTA) on the receiver""s side stores the received electronic mail in an individual mailbox for the specified mail address of a communication terminal device of the receiver. The communication terminal device on the receiver""s side periodically accesses the mail server on the receiver""s side by a mail reception protocol such as POP (Post Office Protocol) 3 through the Internet, and obtains the electronic mail that has been received and stored in the individual mailbox for that communication terminal device.
According to a conventional electronic mail system, in the case that the communication terminal device sends the electronic mail by the mail system operating on the network, the communication terminal device on the sender""s side can confirm that the electronic mail has been sent to the mail server on the sender""s side. However, the communication terminal device on the receiver""s side cannot confirm that the electronic mail has arrived at the mail address on the receiver""s side.
In order to eliminate the above-described disadvantage of the conventional electronic mail system, several mail delivery confirmation methods have been suggested in RFC (Request For Comment) as follows.
One of the methods is named DSN (Delivery Status Notification) and confirms a mail delivery at a SMTP command level. When electronic mail is stored in a mailbox of the mail server (MTA) on the receiver""s side, the mail server returns delivery confirmation mail to the sender of the electronic mail, which method is referred to as RFC 1891 and RFC 1894. However, this method does not allow the sender to confirm that the receiver has actually checked the electronic mail with use of an UA (User Agent) such as an electronic mail processing software or the like.
Additionally, another method named MDN (Message Disposition Notification) provides a xe2x80x9cDisposition-Notification-To:xe2x80x9d field in a mail header of electronic mail, describes a mail address to which the electronic mail is sent, and requests a mail delivery confirmation, which method is referred to RFC 2298.
Another method to confirm a mail delivery is for the UA that receives the electronic mail to simply send delivery confirmation mail to the mail address located in a xe2x80x9cFrom:xe2x80x9d field of the electronic mail received.
In addition to a method for confirming a mail delivery, a system described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 11-15755 discloses a method to return error mail to the sender of the electronic mail by the mail server (MTA) on the receiver""s side when the mail address specified by the electronic mail transmitted by the sender does not exist.
On the other hand, in a communication terminal device that exchanges data with an other party""s communication terminal device by establishing a connection to the other party through a public network, information obtained at each communication, for example, a date, a time, an address, a duration and a result of the communication, is recorded as communication management information in a communication management table. Subsequently, a communication management report based on contents of the communication management information is printed out by a plotter so as to be visible on paper, in response to a fixed input operation or for each fixed number of communications.
In the above-described case, if an electronic mail transmission to the other party is successful, a communication result field in the communication management information is set to xe2x80x9cOKxe2x80x9d. If the electronic mail transmission failed, the communication result field in the communication management information is set to xe2x80x9cERRxe2x80x9d.
However, since the above-described delivery confirmation or error notification is received only as electronic mail, which may simply be printed out on paper or displayed on a monitor, a result thereof is not conventionally reflected in the communication result field in the communication management information.
A network facsimile device including functions to exchanges image information with use of electronic mail by connecting to the Internet, to create a send/receive history information table for every electronic mail sent or received, and to visibly output a communication management report displaying contents of the send/receive history information table as a list is practically used.
In such a network facsimile device, ITU-T advice T.37 is adapted as technical advice related to an electronic mail communication function for communicating image information with use of electronic mail.
When exchanging image information using the electronic mail, the mail delivery confirmation method as described above becomes a problem.
The electronic mail is basically a storage-type application, and a sender cannot confirm that the transmitted image information has arrived correctly at a communication terminal device that is located on a receiver""s side, unlike a conventional facsimile application that communicates with the other party in real time over a public network.
Accordingly, the delivery confirmation of the image information can be performed by including a function to request the delivery confirmation mail in the network facsimile device.
However, when receiving the delivery confirmation mail, the network facsimile device cannot clearly indicate which electronic mail transmitted with image information corresponds to the delivery confirmation mail. As a result, the mail delivery confirmation function in the network facsimile device cannot effectively function.
Accordingly, it is a general object of the present invention to provide a method and an apparatus for managing collectively delivery confirmation mail and error mail that correspond to a transmitted electronic mail and are returned from an electronic mail system on a network, as communication management information in a communication terminal device, in which the disadvantages described above are eliminated.
The above-described objects of the present invention are achieved by a communication terminal device that transmits electronic mail through a network by a mail system thereon, said communication terminal device including a communication management table storing communication management information related to a communication using the electronic mail through the network, said communication management information including a communication result, a communication management report outputting unit that creates and outputs report data based on stored contents of said communication management table, a delivery confirmation mail detecting unit that detects delivery confirmation mail returned from the mail system on the network, said delivery confirmation mail corresponding to the electronic mail transmitted by the mail system, and a communication result adding unit that adds information indicating a communication success as the communication result in the communication management information related to the communication using the electronic mail, which communication management information is stored in said communication management table if said delivery confirmation mail detecting unit detects the delivery confirmation mail.
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
It should be note that, hereinafter, electronic mail is referred to as e-mail.